Duolingo vs Preply: app or tutor to actually speak?

Duolingo vs Preply is a choice between two different products: a free app that drills words and sentences, and a marketplace of paid tutors who make you talk. If you're squeezing practice around a job, a trip or a move, the useful question is what each one does for your speaking, and when the app on its own is enough.

Every rule and price below comes from the US App Store listing, Duolingo's Help Center and the Preply Help Center, checked on 28 September 2026.

How are Duolingo and Preply different?

Duolingo is a self-study app: you tap through short themed lessons, earn streaks and follow a path set by the course. Preply connects you with a human tutor for live 1-on-1 video lessons, where you choose the tutor, the topics and the pace. One trains recognition and habit, the other trains you to answer a real person.

Verdict: Duolingo is the cheaper habit, Preply is the one that puts a person on the other end of the sentence.

Can Duolingo alone teach you to speak a language?

Duolingo alone can get you saying simple sentences out loud, but it can't give you an unscripted conversation. The app checks your answer against what it expects, so you never have to explain your weekend, defend an opinion or recover when someone asks "why?". That recovery is the skill conversation needs.

Duolingo does several things well. Its blog says its major courses are aligned with the CEFR, the Council of Europe's six-level scale (A1 to C2), and it offers a free path in more than 40 languages. The streak keeps people practising on days they would otherwise skip, which counts for a lot at beginner level.

What does Duolingo Max add for speaking?

Duolingo Max is the top subscription. According to Duolingo's Help Center, it includes everything in Super Duolingo plus two AI features: Roleplay, where you follow a scenario with an app character, and Video Call with Lily. Max is sold in the iOS and Android apps, not on the web. These are real speaking drills, but the partner is software, not a tutor who knows your goals.

When is Preply worth paying for instead of Duolingo?

Preply is worth paying for when you need to speak by a date: a job interview, an exam, a move abroad, or a stall at intermediate level where apps stop helping. A Preply tutor corrects what you actually say and adapts the next lesson to your mistakes, which no app course does.

Four situations where a tutor is the better use of money:

• You have an exam with a speaking part, such as IELTS or DELE.
• Your job now requires meetings, calls or clients in the language.
• You're moving and need to handle a landlord, a doctor or a school.
• You understand a lot but freeze when you have to answer.

The last one was my case. I'm learning English on Preply with my tutor Ken, and my level is B1, aiming for B2+. My reading and listening were already good; expressing myself out loud was the problem. I credit my fast progress to speaking for most of every 50-minute lesson. If your job is the reason, our page for working adults learning a language lists the situations worth rehearsing first.

What are Preply's real downsides compared with Duolingo?

Preply's biggest downside is the commitment. The Preply Help Center says each subscription is tied to one tutor, runs in 28-day cycles with a minimum of 4 lessons, and unscheduled lessons expire at renewal. Duolingo never charges you for a lesson you skipped. You can pause a Preply subscription once per cycle for up to 20 days, but you have to remember to do it.

The trial is paid too. Each trial lasts 25 or 50 minutes, and if it disappoints, you can ask for up to 2 free replacement trials with other tutors per account. My full account of the booking and the costs is in the Preply review.

How much does Duolingo cost compared with Preply over a year?

Duolingo costs nothing if you accept ads, and Super Duolingo in-app purchases on the US App Store range from $9.99 to $119.99 (checked September 2026). Preply costs whatever your tutor charges, times at least 4 lessons, times 13 billing cycles a year, because Preply bills every 28 days rather than monthly.

Verdict: even the paid app costs about a ninth of one modest weekly lesson plan, but it can't correct your speaking; the tutor is what you pay for being corrected.

The $20 rate is an example, not an average: tutors on Preply set their own prices, and cheaper and pricier tutors exist in every language. My own figure is real: 12 hours a month at about €34 an hour, roughly €408 a month in September 2026. If you're weighing tutoring sites on price, the Preply vs italki comparison explains how pay-per-lesson billing changes the math.

How do you combine Duolingo and Preply in one week?

Duolingo and Preply work best together when each one has a separate job: the app for words and review on the days without a lesson, the tutor for speaking with those words. A week built this way costs one lesson plus the free app, and no minute of the lesson goes to drills you could do alone.

1. Book one weekly Preply lesson at a fixed time, 50 minutes if you can, 25 if not.
2. On three or four other days, do 10 to 15 minutes of Duolingo on the same theme.
3. Before each lesson, write five sentences about your week using the new words.
4. In the lesson, say them to the tutor and ask to be corrected every time.
5. Once a week, practise out loud with a voice assistant for a few minutes.

I do step 5 in the morning with ChatGPT's voice mode, while stuck in traffic. It doesn't replace Ken, but it means I arrive at the lesson having already said the sentences once. Not sure what level to tell a tutor? The level quiz gives you a CEFR estimate in two minutes.

Skip paid tutoring for now if you can't protect one slot a week: a subscription that renews while you cancel lessons costs more than it teaches. Use free Duolingo and a weekly language exchange until your schedule settles. For a Speakly angle on the app side, see our Speakly vs Duolingo guide.